Unexpected Death
Most of Rossetti's complaint about his wife's death is that she died unexpectedly. He works through a thorough description of anger at God for her premature passing because, in hindsight, he identifies the significance of time in a person's development. Given enough time, she could have become a saint, but she was young. Rossetti interprets his wife's death as a threatening realization for himself and his own mortal status. Not only is he reminded that life is not guaranteed, but now he recognizes that because time is limited not everyone reaches their full potential even though they may have eventually become capable of greatness and excellence.
Paternal Love
In his grieving process, Rossetti comes to personify death as his own unborn child. He and his wife never had children, but he interprets death as their continued union in a sense. Death will inherit whatever the couple achieved during their lifetimes. In this way death becomes an heir and progeny. Within his despair, Rossetti finds consolation in this conception of death, as a welcome and long-desired fulfillment. Although previously he understood death as a foreign and dreadful visitor, he now sees death as a familiar and hopeful relation. He wants to memorialize his wife as she was before her death in this idea of death, which will bring him closer to her in the end.
Change
As is common in poetry, the temporality of all things consumes Rossetti's thoughts. He understands his life differently through the lens of his wife's death. He becomes compelled to observe how everything -- from his own face to the weather -- changes. In this change he welcomes a sort of vivacity, which prevents him from becoming bored. By focusing on transitoriness, Rossetti finds consolation in his own emotions. Emotion itself is an attempt of the mind to inspire change. Rossetti learns to accept the rapid shifts of his own feelings in response to the acceptance of how everything else around him and about his is also changing all the time. He learns to release his expectations and to welcome the new and the different, despite his reservations and regrets.
